Cong sets in motion process for appointing PCC chiefs

New Delhi: Three months after effecting a
reshuffle of the AICC, the Congress has set in motion the
process of appointing new PCC chiefs in some six states,
including in Andhra Pradesh, where it suffered a shocking
defeat in the recent by-polls.

In Orissa, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and
Mumbai too, the party will be having new PCC Presidents.

Party sources said that in Andhra Pradesh, the only
major state where the party is in power on its own, state
Ministers Botsa Satyanaryana and Kanna Lakshminarayana are the
front-runners for the post. The two belong to the influential
Kapu community.

Film star Chiranjeevi, who merged his Praja Rajyam
Party with the Congress recently, is also from the community.

D Srinivas is currently the PCC chief in Andhra
Pradesh, where is the party is undergoing a churning following
a crushing defeat in the Kadapa Lok Sabha by-polls at the
hands of rebel YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

Congress nominee and state Health Minister DL
Ravindra even lost his deposit.

N Kirankumar Reddy was made the Chief Minister
sometime back in the state replacing K Rosaiah. Rosaiah had a
meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday.

The sources said that in Orissa, former state Minister
Niranjan Patnaik, is the front-runner to head the party which
is in the opposition for last 12 years with the BJD led by
Navin Patnaik ruling there. Former Union Minister KP Singhdeo
is the incumbent PCC chief.

The process comes nearly three months after the AICC
reshuffle in March.

In Rajasthan, Congress is toying with the idea of
making party MP Narendra Budania or PCC Vice-President Chander
Bhan as the new PCC chief replacing Union Minister C P Joshi
who successfully led the party in the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2008
Assembly elections.

Both Budania and Chander Bhan hail from the
influential Jat community and the party has Ashok Gehlot as
the Chief Minister who belongs to the OBC.

Changes are also in the offing in J&K and Haryana
where the party is headed by Saifuddin Soz and Phulchand
Mulana respectively.

In Mumbai, incumbent Kripashanker Singh appears to be
on his way out as the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee
chief.

Singh is battling corruption charges and various
groups in the city Congress have been mounting pressure on the
party high command for his removal.

The CBI has found evidence of financial transactions
between Singh and former Jharkhand minister Kamlesh Singh, an
aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda.